Hot Cross Buns

My grandma has been making these for her female-only Easter luncheon for at least the last 40 years. It's fun to have those foods you look forward to each year that bring back such strong memories of your childhood!

HOT CROSS BUNS

2 cups milk
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 pkt yeast
1/2 cup warm water (about 120 degrees)
1 T sugar
4 cups of flour
1 T salt
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1-1 1/2 cups of raisins
2 tsp cinnnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp cardamon
3 cups flour (approximately)

Combine yeast, warm water, and sugar (1T)in a small bowl. Set aside.

Heat milk to about 120 degrees and mix with melted butter in mixing bowl.
Add 4 cups of flour, 1 T salt, 1 cup sugar, and one beaten egg to milk in mixer. Add yeast mixture and combine.

In a separate bowl combine raisins, cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamon. Add to flour mixture and stir. With your mixer running add more flour as needed (1 cup at a time) until the dough begins to clean the side (usually takes about 7 cups total--3 in addition to the original 4). Mix for a total of about 8 minutes.

Cover dough and let rise until it reaches at least 3/4 of the way to the top of your mixer bowl. Shape into rolls--I usually just do balls. Place into greased pan and let rise again. (For some reason this dough seems to take a long time to rise for me, maybe it's just my yeast, I don't know--I usually start at about 1 in the afternoon if I want them ready for dinner. I let the first rise go for about 3 hours and the second for about 1 1/2 hours or so. They don't rise as much the second time but will rise a lot more once in the oven)

After this second rise, either spray with pam or baste with melted butter and sprinkle the top of each roll with sugar. Bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Green Chile Stew

1 pound hamburger cooked and drained
3 cups water (more or less)
2 potatoes chopped
14.5 oz can diced tomatoes or more if you like (I freeze my leftover tomatoes from my garden and reserve them for stews. I add them to stews frozen and whole, then I remove the peels and I cut them while in the stew.)
1/4 to 1/3 head of cabbage chopped
1/3 onion diced
2-3 teaspoons chicken boullion (this is really salty)
green chile to taste
any other vegetables you would like

In a stew pot, mix the boullion with water until it desolves. Start with 2 teas, then taste to see if you would like more. Add vegetables to the water and turn the stove to medium heat until it simmers, then turn down the heat just to keep it simmering. I reserve the green chile until the end after I have served the kids stew, then I add it to the pot. Cook until the Vegetables are soft.

Frog Eye Salad

I made this last month for Jenny's.

3/4 of the bag Acini di Pepe pasta by private selection(I find this at smith's or albertson's)
2 Tablespoons flour
1/2 to 2/3c sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon lemon juice
20 oz can sliced pineapple (reserve juice)
can crushed pineapple
10.5 oz can mandarine oranges
mini marshmellows
16 oz tub cool whip
walnuts crushed as much as you like
coconut flakes as much as you like

Cook the pasta. Drain. Combine the flour, pinch of salt and sugar with the pineapple juice from the cans in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat until it thickens like a thin gravy, not like pudding. Add lemon juice. Add the pasta to the sauce and mix, then refrigerate. After the pasta and sauce are cooled, stir in remaining ingredients in a larger bowl. The sauce and pasta can be done the morning or night before you serve the salad.

Grandma's Chocolate Eclairs

Grandma Evans Chocolate Éclairs

1 cup water

1 cube butter

1 tsp. salt

1 cup flour

4 eggs

(I usually double the recipe, and it makes about 34 éclairs)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Boil water, butter and salt. Add flour and stir over fire until it forms a ball of dough. Take off stove and add one egg at a time.   

Drop a heaping Tablespoon of dough onto a lightly greased pan. Leave room between each drop of dough. Bake 25 minutes. Do not under cook.

When éclairs are cooled, slit an opening  on the side of the éclair small enough to add vanilla pudding in the middle.  You can put vanilla pudding in a pastry bag or just spoon in the pudding into the éclairs.

Frost with chocolate frosting and refrigerate.

Grandma Nana's Applesauce Cookies

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup nuts (chopped walnuts)
1 cup raisins
1/2- 3/4 bag chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup apple sauce
1 tsp soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

Blend shortening, sugar, eggs and vanilla together till smooth. Add flour, cinnamon, cloves, salt, soda, baking powder and applesauce. Mix well then add chocolate chips, raisins and walnuts. Mix again. Drop small spoonfuls onto cookie sheet and bake for 12 min at 350 degrees.

Quinoa Roasted Asparagus Salad

1 cup Quinoa, thoroughly rinsed
2 cups water
Salt
1 bunch thin asparagus, cut into 2-inch pieces
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
ground black pepper
Juice of 1 lemon
1 (16-ounce) can white beans, drained and rinsed
1 (6-ounce) jar roasted red bell peppers drained and cut into 1/4 by 2-inch strips
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
2 Tbs minced scallions
Salad greens for serving
2 Tbs chopped fresh parsley

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine quinoa with the water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil. Salt the water, reduce the heat to low, and simmer for 15 minutes until all liquid is absorbed. Drain will and place in a bowl. Set aside to cool.

Arrange the asparagus on a lightly oiled baking pan and drizzle with 1 Tbs of the olive oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Roast until tender, about 8 min.

In a large bowl, combine the remaining 3 Tbs olive oil, the lemon juice and salt and pepper. Add the white beans, roasted red pepper, celery and scallions, along with the roasted asparagus and cooked quinoa. Toss gently to combine. Serve on salad greens, garnished with the parsley.